Task #5: A book by a journalist or about journalism

[Book Riot]

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 5th Read Harder task.

[Kate]

Thinking about whether Bunk: The True Story of Hoaxes, Hucksters, Humbug, Plagiarists, Forgeries, and Phonies fits, since it incorporates how falsehood and fakeness has imbued our current journalism and media. I am leaning yes, but that might just be because a lot of the journalism nonfiction I can think of doesn't much appeal to me.

If not that, then I'll probably do All the President's Men.

[Andrea]

None of these are about journalism, but the authors are journalists:

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away or many other titles by Bill Bryson

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy

Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals or any other title by Michael Pollan

(These are just the titles I already had on my TBR)

[Kate]

Andrea wrote: "None of these are about journalism, but the authors are journalists:

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away or many other titles by [author:Bil..."

Thanks for this! A Walk in the Woods was going to be my humor pick, maybe I'll move it to this category instead.

[Kimberley]

Going with For One More Day by journalist Mitch Albom who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie which I read in 2017 I think.

[Anna]

So, I loved Dopesick and Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, but, for the most part, I'm going to leave the nonfiction-by-a-journalist alone. I've lost count of the many, many great options (and, honestly, most reporters will turn their beat into a book deal).

If you want to learn more about the journalism business, here are some options:
All the President's Men
The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
The Journalist and the Murderer
The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with the World's Most Powerful Man
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat
Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America
Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller
Personal History

Fiction about journalists:
Scoop
The Imperfectionists (one of my favorites)
The Quiet American
Towards the End of the Morning
Psmith, Journalist
The Shipping News
John Henry Days
Death and the Penguin

Authors who were once journalists:
Hemmingway
Walt Whitman
Langston Hughes
Hunter S. Thompson
Tom Wolfe
Joan Didion
Mark Twain
Maya Angelou
Margaret Mitchell
Neil Gaiman
Tom Rachman

[Derick]

Killers of the Flower Moon works here as well.

[Emily]

I read The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it

[Brandon]

Thank You for Your Service

[Martha]

Parkland: Birth of a Movement is my first choice (if I can wait for it)

Ones I have that I won't have to wait for:
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

[Veronica]

I'm going to read And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. I've tried to read it twice and have yet to make it all the way through. This time I will.

[Jessica]

Think I'll go for something by Jon Ronson, they are always fun and interesting.

[Bonnie G.]

Anna H. That is a great list
So many options I hadn't thought of. I would add Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky to books about media. It is excellent.

[Tracy]

I have Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity on my kindle. I also found We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families on a list and thats been on my TBR for a long time.

[Heather]

Derick wrote: "Killers of the Flower Moon works here as well."

Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage would work for this task as well.

[Allie]

Martha wrote: "Parkland: Birth of a Movement is my first choice (if I can wait for it)

Ones I have that I won't have to wait for:
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
[boo..."

Five Days at Memorial was really good.

[The2CarolinesAndBooks]

I'm especially interested in reading Rosewater: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival.

[XiangYu]

I'm going to read The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg. I cross-referenced with this list and found that this book is also on my TBR list :)

[Danae]

I read Lynsey Addario's autobiography awhile ago, and even saw her speak at a local National Geographic event. She has an amazing career and life story as a war photojournalist in a male-dominated profession, and of course her photography is stunning. Check it out here: It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War.

[Genie]

For this journalism item, I am going to read April Ryan’s Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.

[Megan]

I misread this as “a book by a journalist *about* journalism lol
I picked All the President's Men

[Mercedes]

For years I've been wanting to read The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm. Her book made the Modern Library list of 100 best nonfiction of the 20th century. I've been working on that list and have yet to be disappointed. It's what I'll be reading.

[Beth]

Danae wrote: "I read Lynsey Addario's autobiography awhile ago, and even saw her speak at a local National Geographic event. She has an amazing career and life story as a war photojournalist in a male-dominated ..."

Danae, thanks for pointing this out! This sounds amazing and I will have to add it to my ever growing to read pile. Lol.

[Lianne]

I'm planning on going back a few decades and reading Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All the President's Men

[Milena]

Do you think a book by Svetlana Alexievich will work? She used to be a journalist.

[Kendra]

I found Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim absolutely captivating when I read it a few years ago. I'm planning to read her novel, The Interpreter, for this category.

[Jess]

I’m planning to read “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” by Jose Antonio Vargas.

[Teresa]

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Leave Me

[Henriette]

I have had I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer on my tbr for a long time - I'm gonna go with that.

[Stina]

Andrea wrote: "None of these are about journalism, but the authors are journalists:

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away or many other titles by ..."

Oooh, The Glass Castle is on my TBR already, so maybe I'll do that.

Or perhaps I'll finish The Persian Pickle Club.

[Rachel]

I'm definitely reading something by Hunter S. Thompson. I've been meaning to for so long. So either Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time.

[Diane]

Just recently I discovered that Geraldine Brooks, author of March, Caleb's Crossing, Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague and others, is a journalist.

[Maria]

I’m planning to read Putin Country by Ann Garrels (NPR). It’s been on my TBR for awhile!

[Chrissy]

I highly recommend The View From Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior if you are looking for bite sized nonfiction pieces.

[Therese]

Tracy wrote: "I have Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity on my kindle. I also found [book:We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Fam..."

I read the book about Mumbai and it is heart wrenching. Not an easy read.

[Therese]

Xiang Yu wrote: "I'm going to read The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg. I cross-referenced with this list and found tha..."

Another very good book.

[Therese]

I plan on reading What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather. I need something positive to read in the upcoming year.

[Bobby]

I have at least three books in my house that fit this category, so I will probably go with one of them: All the President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward; Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee; and Fast Copy, by Dan Jenkins.

[Serendipity]

I'm planning to read The Glass Castle for another challenge and thought I'd also use it here. Except I've just come across Sold on a Monday which sounds like something I'd really enjoy. I'm hoping I'll have time to get to it. If not I'll have this task covered anyway.

[Brandyn]

Would Columbine work for this prompt?

[Bonnie G.]

Yes, Brandyn. Columbine works, and it is phenomenal.

[Mya]

Brandyn wrote: "Would Columbine work for this prompt?"

There's also The Columbine Effect: How five teen pastimes got caught in the crossfire and why teens are taking them back, by journalist Beth Winegarner

[Mya]

Tenacity: Heavy Metal In the Middle East and Africa, by journalist Beth Winegarner is a good choice for people interested in the international music scene.

[Tabitha]

Got the audiobook for I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer so that'll be my read for this though if I have time I may also try to do The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace.

[Jessica]

I might read The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan for this one. It has been sitting unread on my shelf for a couple of years.

[Karen]

A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption & Death in Putin's Russia or A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya both by Anna Politkovskaya - one of these will be my pick for this task. She survived poisoning by (Putin and oligarchs?) and was later murdered in a contract killing.

[Lisa]

I will be using this one


https://www.amazon.com/Reporter-Memoi...

[Kristin]

There's a new Tony Horwitz book coming out this year (Spying on the South: Travels with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land) so of course that's what I'm reading!

[Lindsey]

I think I'll read One Hundred Years of Dirt by Rick Morton, which has been on my radar for a bit.

[Mya]

Already in my to-read list - Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq is a graphic novel about two reporters as they research potential stories on the effects of the Iraq War on the Middle East and, specifically, the war’s refugees.